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Any other year, students needed a signed form from their parents to read the book. If they got
that, they would meet after school to discuss the novel with their teacher in small groups.

But when a long-term substitute this year saw copies of the 1999 novel
The Perks of Being a Wallflower on the classroom bookshelf, he figured it was a good fit
for the freshman lesson on coming-of-age stories.

The whole class began reading it at Grandview Heights High School. And then came the emails.

“I am sickened by the pornographic details in this book,” one parent wrote to a member of the
school board, citing a two-page passage narrating a date-rape scene. “I think it would be a good
book without those details.”

Another parent sent the principal a similar message, saying it “haunts me” that 14-year-old
students would read and visualize the book.

The superintendent and a district lawyer refused to release the names of the two parents,
contending that the emails are academic records and are not subject to the state’s open-records
law.

The book tells the tale of a high-school freshman who at first doesn’t quite fit in. Written by
author Stephen Chbosky, the book also deals with drugs, alcohol, sex, homosexuality and abuse.

“This is one of the books that has, honestly, the most reasons that people come up with for
challenging it,” said Angela Maycock, assistant director of the American Library Association’s
Office for Intellectual Freedom.

Since 2001, Maycock’s office has recorded 29 attempts across the country to have the book
removed from schools or libraries, including a 2009 challenge in the Cincinnati suburb of Wyoming.
Five times it has been on the office’s list of most-challenged books.

In response to the complaints in Grandview Heights, Superintendent Ed O’Reilly sent a letter to
all parents of freshmen, saying he would revamp how the district approves reading lists. But
students were far enough into the book that he let them read on.

That’s when O’Reilly said things got a bit out of hand.

Someone claiming to be an anonymous student –– school officials think it was an adult –– emailed
parents, lamenting that “two parents could complain to the school board president and have the book
banned.”

“What’s next?
Fahrenheit 451?” the email said.

The same person started a Facebook page to spread the word against censorship. Parents threw in
support. Then they sent more emails.

O’Reilly received more emails in support of the book than those opposed to it, and he explained
that the school never banned the book. Students are almost finished with it now.

“It’s not a question of censorship, but what’s appropriate for different grade levels,” O’Reilly
said. “We’re not banning books. We’re not in that business.”

Many parents say early teens should read the book, even the parts dealing with date rape, drugs,
alcohol, child abuse and suicide.

“Unfortunately it is a part of life,” parent Barbara Cheney said in a
Dispatch interview. “You can’t shelter everyone from everything.”

In fact, since 2010, state law has required schools to discuss dating violence as part of the
curriculum.

“Adolescents need to talk about things that sometimes make us uncomfortable,” parent Sherry
Daniel said.

O’Reilly agreed, but doesn’t know whether those talks should be in English class, about that
book. Next month administrators will create a rubric to help decide which books should be read and
in what grade.